Biologically active ingredients are widely used in agriculture, landscape and turf management to kill or regulate the growth of desired or unwanted plants, diseases, insects or other pests and/or to nourish, protect, regulate the growth, or enhance the appearance of desired plants, and/or to modify the behavior of animals interacting with plants. In the course of a growing season, modern plant culture may dictate multiple treatments with biologically active ingredients. A practitioner of plant culture must decide whether a particular treatment is best performed with a granular product or a liquid spray application. Crops as diverse as turf, grain crops, tubers, ground fruits and vegetables, orchard crops, and horticultural plantings are routinely treated with either granular or sprayed substances. Each application method has limitations. Specifically, while granular herbicide tends to provide a simple broadcast, generally long-term release, accurate placement of product in the treated area, relative freedom from spills and other environmental releases, and safer handling, granules are difficult to adhere to plant surfaces.
In contrast, spray treatment generally requires considerable skill for application, may contact only exposed foliage, and may tend to dissipate, or “run off,” quickly. Spray treatment also has the undesirable attribute of spray drift that contaminates surrounding areas with active agent intended for crop application. In spite of the difficulties associated with liquid application, the improved adherence properties of liquid spray of biologically active materials targeting weed leaves or foliage make this a desirable route of delivery.
Regardless of whether spray or granule broadcast is used, the application method is not completely satisfactory. For instance, spray application is quickly dissipated and leached into soil by rain. Granular formulations often require the use of additional herbicide due to inefficiencies in the timely release, or inefficient environmental extraction of the herbicide from the associated granular substrate materials.
Thus, there exists a need for a carrier granule carrying a biologically active ingredient, the carrier adhering to the surface of plants, grasses and weeds using a granule that disperses rapidly when applied to wetted foliage, dries quickly, and forms a film on a target that retains a biologically active agent to the contacted foliage.